Valley of the Thousand Smokes

Tom Flynn has an amazing enough life without the need to embellish, but it is embellishment that gets him in doors and into trouble in this rollicking western by veteran writer Cushman (In Alaska with Shipwreck Kelly, 1996). A white lie helps him secure a position as a sergeant with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a job he may or may not live to regret. His investigation of the murder of a boy at an Indian mission leads him into a potentially deadly conflict with Pere Brissaud, who rules over the valley of the title like a feudal lord, and involves him in the intrigues surrounding Louis Riel's mixed-blood rebellions and their aftereffects. The action never lets up as Flynn must find the boy's killer and possibly halt a revolt against the Canadian government. Cushman displays a well-honed ear for dialogue and a sense of place enlivened by much actual history and period detail. Neither fans nor new readers of Cushman's fiction will be disappointed. (Nov.)